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SARAJEVO, September 18 (FENA) - Since the fight against fake news and disinformation has become increasingly important, especially during the election campaign, the OSCE Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina recognized that fake news and disinformation undermine democracy by calling into question the objective journalism and media freedom.
The OSCE Mission in BiH told FENA that the results of the "Assessment of Media Sector Needs in Bosnia and Herzegovina" show that the media in Bosnia and Herzegovina are saturated with fake news, hate speech and biased reporting.
"Survey participants mostly support stricter sanctions for the spread of 'fake news' in order to improve the objectivity of reporting and prevent the spread of illegal and harmful content," the OSCE states.
Independent media and media literacy are crucial tools in the fight against disinformation and "fake news", the OSCE believes, which is why they called on the media to adhere to the highest professional and ethical journalistic standards, and citizens to think critically about consuming or sharing possible disinformation.
Lamija Silajdžić, a senior assistant at the Department of Journalism/Communications at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Sarajevo agrees that the fight against these phenomena has become very important. She said in an interview with FENA that this fight is important considering the fact that misinformation and false information in the digital era can spread faster and through many more channels than before.
"The media and professional journalists are in an unenviable position in this sense, because they are faced with so many fake portals or profiles on social networks that spread such content without any control, and which a professional journalist must check before sharing and using it in his/her work,” she said.
When asked how serious media and institutions could deal with this issue, Silajdžić emphasizes that everyone should deal with this problem both individually and through institutions, since this is the only way for a successful fight against these phenomena.
She points out that each media is responsible for the content it publishes on its channels, because today there are more channels, since the media operate in a convergent environment, but they must cope with this and put professional ethics before all other requirements. The obligation to publish only verified information must be a priority for every professional.
She believes that the Communications Regulatory Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina can be the regulator of the online content of TV and radio stations that have licenses to broadcast form the Agency, but such a solution does not include all other online media.
Although there are established rules for how one can launch news media depending on what type of media is being launched. There are rules for registering every legal entity, including a media one, but a big problem, warns Silajdžić, is that starting online media is very simple and cheap, and unregulated.
She underlines that Bosnia and Herzegovina certainly needs a Law on Transparency of Media Ownership, which was often appealed to by the non-governmental sector, as well as experts from the academic community and international institutions due to the necessity of its adoption.
"However, we do not have such a law yet, which may be the result of disinterest on the part of decision-makers or the deliberate blocking of that process due to personal (political) interests," Silajdžić said.
She points out that fact checking can help in the fight against disinformation, but the emphasis must be on everyone's responsibility, both individually and institutionally, because only such an approach can reduce the number of disinformation and harmful content flooding the public (digital) space.
(FENA) A. B.
